In "Sick Mind", Optimus is infected with the life-threatening Cybonic plague, prompting Arcee and Bumblebee to infiltrate the Nemesis to find a cure for the virus Megatron himself created. As Optimus grows weaker, he learns of Megatron's survival of the space bridge explosion. It was Bumblebee entering Megatron's mind via cortical psychic patch and retrieving the cure that saved Optimus. In the next episode, "Out of His Head", Optimus is, surprisingly, saved by the revived Megatron when he intercepted Starscream's attempted nosedive to kill him.
In Super Mode, Optimus Prime can combine with Leobreaker to form "Savage Claw Mode", which sees the feline Autobot become a gigantic clawed arm for his leader. Alternately, if Prime's backpack is removed, he can merge with Wing Saber into "Sonic Wing Mode", with the aerial ace forming a new winged backpack and chestplate for Optimus, and providing him with new hand-held sword weapons and firing missile launchers that connect to his Super Mode boots. The nature of the combination means that the two partners cannot combine with Prime at once—at least, not without physically removing one of Prime's own arms.
Really great, well-researched article. I think you hit the nail on the head here – the fact that there are more expensive sets than ever before affects perception. Also, I’m pretty sure the presence of a baseplate (light but large) in the old sets made them seem bigger. I don’t like the lack of baseplates in new sets – it does make them seem smaller.
This. Is. Awesome. I remember running LEGO piece auctions ~1998/99 on RTL (rec.toys.lego) then later my own website. I’d buy sets at Walmart and other places on discount, break them out, and sell the pieces as lots. I knew I’d always make good money if I could average < $0.10/piece cost (ideally around $0.07) and sell for $0.15 – $0.20+ … fun times!
Prime would make one further surprise appearance in Dreamwave's Transformers: Armada series. With Optimus Prime having disappeared to an alternate dimension, devastated by Unicron, the Autobots attempted to find their leader. As Jetfire attempted to locate him through Spacebridge links to other dimensions, one of these clearly shows RiD Optimus Prime and Prowl.
An enormous statue of Optimus Prime, bearing two Golden Disks, could be seen on Cybertron in front of the Hall of Archives. The statue was subsequently blown to pieces by the Vehicon forces. Fires of the Past Later, Megatron beamed a hologram of Optimus Prime down to the ruins of Iacon to confront Optimus Primal, claiming to contain the "essence" of the real Prime that had been stored here since the Final Battle. Primal was conned by this and was tricked by the hologram into accessing the Oracle. Megatron seized control of the Oracle code and quickly revealed his ruse. Primal explained to his Maximals that he knew the image was fake, but he needed the location of the missing sparks from Megatron's mind. The Search
When animating the scene in which Primal removes Prime's spark, Mainframe's animators consulted The Transformers: The Movie for reference on the interior of Prime's chest. Not realizing the importance of the Matrix of Leadership, they rendered it as a container for Prime's spark. Beast Wars writers Larry DiTillio and Bob Forward have since claimed that in their view, Prime had not received the Matrix from Alpha Trion at this point, but a later comic produced for Botcon indicated that the Matrix was in fact stored in a secondary compartment, hidden behind Prime's spark. In this particular comic, the alien Vok used the Matrix, the Transmetal Driver, and a control suit once piloted by the Predacon Quickstrike to create Primal Prime.
The price per minifigure has definitely gone up in the past 5 years. You used to be able to get 4 minifigs (along with some other stuff) at the $9.99 price point, now these are $12.99. And there are fewer minifigs in most $19.99, $29.99, etc. sets now. Lego Minifigures Series 1 was $1.99 each, subsequent series $2.99 each – I know it’s supply and demand, but it still feels kind of exploitative. I admit the cleverness of the builds keeps improving though.
Released as part of the Allspark Power refresh of the movie line, First Strike Optimus Prime is an extensive redeco of Voyager class Optimus Prime in a colour scheme based upon Generation 1 and Classics Optimus Prime. The included toy bio describes this coloring as Prime paying tribute to the markings he wore as a young soldier when the war began. Due to the transformation scheme, this figure actually ends up being less like its G1 counterpart in robot mode, a sacrifice made for the slavish redeco of the vehicle mode. You can't have your cake and eat it too, folks.
Transformers: War for Cybertron was released in June 2010 for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and Nintendo DS. The game takes on Cybertron during the Great War between the Autobots, led first by Zeta Prime and then Optimus Prime, and the Decepticons, led by Megatron. Transformers: Cybertron Adventures was released alongside War For Cybertron for the Wii and utilizes the same characters and setting.
Many who received their first LEGO set in the early 1990’s are now adults looking forward to buying a LEGO set for their first child or for themselves. When we are younger, we do not fully understand how money works. We do not realize that a large LEGO set can require hours of work to earn. We only know what we want. I would wager that it isn’t until our first jobs that we can fully appreciate the value of money. We all wanted the large sets as kids and we didn’t realize how hard our parents had to work for them.
This agenda led the Predacon Megatron to attack the comatose Optimus Prime in stasis on prehistoric Earth, forcing Primal to take Prime's Spark into his body in order to preserve his life while his body underwent repairs. Primal was subsequently mutated into the massive "Optimal Optimus" form, which shared elements of Prime's form, prior to returning the Spark to its rightful place. The Maximals were occupied throughout the remainder of the series protecting Prime and the other Transformers aboard the crashed Ark until the Predacons were defeated. Various monuments to Optimus Prime appeared on Cybertron in Beast Machines, one of them a holographic statue in Iacon that Megatron took control of in order to trick Primal.
After their own Optimus Prime disappeared, Scavenger and Smokescreen discovered an alternate version of Optimus Prime lying unconscious and barely alive in Autobase Earth. Though Red Alert did what he could, the mysterious Prime reactivated only long enough to utter a cryptic statement about the walls crumbling and the coming of chaos, then died. Worlds Collide, Part 1 of 4
The San Diego Comic-Con 2017 exclusive Optimus Prime figure is another redeco of the Premier Edition figure, which aims for a more movie accurate look than the original by still sharing the same paint masks, but replacing the chest's deco with flames and adding extra paint applications on the legs, arms, chest, head, tire rims, both sides of the engine compartment, and the sword and shield... but for some reason still sports the movie-inaccurate blue 'collar', as well as the smaller, less accurate vehicle flame tampographs instead of the more movie-accurate ones used on Dark Optimus Prime. His Autobot insignia is also moved on the upper back section of the air dam. He is packaged in a stylish, display-case-like-box similar to later Transformers: Alternators releases and the Hasbro Toy Shop/SDCC 2011 exclusive figure.
Across the assorted continuities of the original Transformers universe, there have been various interpretations of Optimus Prime. One of Prime's most notable characteristics over all continuities his unswaying commitment to leadership by example. The animated series' version of Optimus Prime is depicted as a straightforward, wise, and upbeat battlefield general. Additionally, the animated series' version of Optimus dislikes rap music, putting him at odds with music-loving characters like Blaster and Jazz.
A special edition Bearbrick released in celebration of the Transformers 30th anniversary, Optimus Prime is a redeco of Bearbrick G1 Optimus Prime in a deco based on his Age of Extinction appearance. He transforms from a Bearbrick painted up like himself to a bear-eared robot and comes with no accessories, but holes in his robot mode hands can accommodate other toys' weapons.
In the Escalation miniseries, Megatron engages Prime and, boosted by Ore-13, overcomes him. Believing their leader dead, the rest of the Autobots attempt to buy the newly arrived Hot Rod time to collect the clone. Prime, who had transferred his consciousness to a backup memory in his trailer command post, advised them to exploit Ore-13's weakness and assault Megatron all-out, catalyzing the Decepticon leader's Energon supply and crippling him.
The voice actor drama was written for OFTCC 2004 by Simon Furman, set after the events in the comics. Among those taken from their world via teleportation beam by Unicron and his Decepticon minions were Spy Changers Optimus Prime, Prowl, Ultra Magnus, and Ironhide. The Autobot forces opposing Unicron attempted to deflect a beam, leaving them all trapped on an uninhabited ice-world. The Autobot forces teamed up to overcome the Decepticons led by Reptilion. The Autobots were then, presumably, returned to their own worlds.
In the movie, he starts out as a 1976 Camaro before modernizing himself. But the 2007 version (the fifth generation of the model) was a concept car-- you couldn’t even buy a new Camaro until 2009. They later switched to the production version for the 2009 sequel Revenge of the Fallen and he was yet another updated model for Dark of the Moon in 2011 (the SS model). In Age of Extinction, he appears both as a 1967 model and another new model of the current version. Finally, back in June, Bay tweeted that in next year’s The Last Knight, Bee would be a custom-built 2016 Camaro. Over the first two years of the relaunch, Chevy sold an astounding 140,000 Camaros and saw a 10% spike in the yellow model, thanks largely to our friend Bumblebee.
If Optimus destroyed the duplicate Cosmos, the real one would inform the Autobots of the Decepticons’ schemes, and the convoy would roll out to take on their adversaries. They were soon met by a squad of flying Decepticons, but were at a strict disadvantage against their adversaries as their vehicle modes possessed no weapons. The Autobots nonetheless managed to fight their way to the Decepticons’ base, one way or another, and defeated the Decepticons by using their own gravity weapon against them. Desert Flight
Naturally, Optimus Prime got the biggest of the sets in the first year of Kre-O. The set can be built into a large long-nose tractor-trailer rig with a removable "sleeper" cab that hides a computer station, and a trailer that can carry the set's two motorcycles or open up to carry larger car builds. The robot mode build includes a huge Optimus, based largely on the live-action movie Optimus, though with a head based almost directly on the Classics Voyager Optimus. He is armed with a distressingly plain brick that fires pressure-launched missiles (aka his smokestacks). Most of the leftover parts in robot mode become a "headquarters" which is mostly just a random assemblage of mismatched-color panels and a pair of barricades. Both main builds leave numerous parts unused if you go expressly by the instructions, but hey, it's a building kit, surely you can find someplace to apply most of them.
Doug Smidebush, Lior Keinan , Kelvin Nduka, Thad Standley, Nolan Zak, Adam Franks, Stephen Brown, Loren Roberts, Matt and Nykki Boersma, Tom Morgan, Jack Everitt, John Kovalic, Seiler Hagan, Jess Hart, Will James, Christopher M. Kelly, Roberto L. Vargas, Michele Hall, Chuck Lawton, Ismael Schonhorst, (There are those who call him) Tim, Vladimir Weinstein, Randiman Rogers, Robert Booth, Henry Roenke, Kevin Culp, W. David MacKenzie, Nicholas Richards, John Idlor, Michael Fox, Rob H., Matthew Cody, Dan Callahan, Patrick Kohn, Seth Phillips, Kevin Korpi, Ben MS, Monica, Mark Gonyea, Pharlain Ross, Derick Larson, Furstarter.com
When Vector Prime reminisced on some of the highlights of his multiversal career, he remembered many events involving Optimus Prime. Among these events was Optimus Prime using the Matrix of Leadership on the Hate Plague, Shockwave taunting a disembodied Optimus Prime, and Megatron firing on the head of Optimus Prime, creating a time storm that necessitated Vector Prime's intervention to ensure Optimus Prime's survival. Vector Prime: In the Beginning

Optimus & Shreddicus were initially exclusive to San Diego Comic-Con 2017, where they sold out. A small portion of the run had been held for future sales: Hasbro Toy Shop put the set up for sale for about five minutes on August 14 before selling out. The remainder was available at HasCon 2017's exclusives booth, but again they burned through the stock very quickly.

Part of the first wave of TakaraTomy Lost Age: Movie Advanced toys, this Japanese-exclusive redeco of 2007 Transformers Protoform Optimus Prime is given a Generation 1-styled color scheme (which is also based on his appearances in IDW's Transformers: Foundation comic-book mini-series). Protoform Optimus Prime transforms into his "entry" mode. This mode somewhat resembles a cybertronic truck, with false wheels sculpted onto the sides, and Optimus Prime's trademark windows in front. His now-blue flame decoration piece fits to the back of the "vehicle", creating the illusion of a flaming comet's tail (Not sure if this was mean to represent his jetpack blast effect or his atmospheric entry heat effect, which is for no reason: entirely blue instead of hot red). The bottom of the vehicle has small wheels to roll the toy across smooth surfaces.